Review on Enhance Performance with POWERTEC 13197 💪 TPI Band Blades – Unleash Precision Cutting Power! by Francisco Duncan

Powertec Band Knife ⅜ inch, 6 steps per inch, 0.014 inch Good saw blade, but has limited use. Summary: Fairly sharp, economical blade at a reasonable price ($10 at time of review). Suitable for hobby and occasional use on thin/soft materials at low speeds. Miracles are bad. Discussion: This blade is very thin/thin (slightly thicker than other toilet paper I think, but slightly more abrasive). A homeowner can purchase a ⅜ inch 6 TPI blade to find a balance between speed and maneuverability. 6 TPI should speed up the cut, and ⅜” should provide stability but still make curvy cuts. It should cut ⅝ inch thick plywood and 2-3 inch thick softwood fairly quickly at normal speed. Unfortunately, this blade is so thin (0.014 inch) and so flexible that even at very low speeds the blade will wander a lot and even bend. Also, welds are poorly controlled, resulting in chattering and rougher cuts. Pros: - Price - Decently sharp Cons: - Limited application (too wide for tight turns and too unstable for long/straight cuts) - Poor quality control (e.g. poor weld) - Not suitable for thick or hard wood. Test Materials (Pictures coming soon) - Medium to Hard Wood: - Tested to a thickness of 4 inches. - Severe blade clouding occurred with 5 cm thick wood even at very low speeds. Plywood tested to 3/4 inch. Blade surprise occurred at normal cutting speed even on ½" plywood with a new blade. - Softwoods: - Tested 3/4" fir and pine (correct) which cut reasonably well across the grain at low speeds but along when cutting of the fiber struggled a lot. -Very Soft Wood: -Tested, well aged/peeled maple for recutting to approx. 6 inches. Blade travel, even at very low speeds of 3-4 inches or more, became too much to handle. I managed to get down to about 3 inches by slowing down to a creep. However, even at low speeds and slight over-tensioning, the saw blade tended to warp/flex, resulting in vertical distortion of the cut and saw binding. Test saw: Craftsman 12" 1 HP saw ("derivative") with freshly installed guides and tensioned to manufacturer's specifications (note: with a good saw blade, I was able to cut wood up to 7 ¼" with this saw with ease).